4 ms·

ootl: what's the deal with hereditary purists and authoritarians appropriating nordic symbolism as dogwhistles?

by xeonmc 7mo ago

krapp 7mo ago
The Nazis were obsessed with a fictional occult quasi-mythology of the "Aryan" race that heavily appropriated Norse mythology and symbolism. The SS symbol was a pair of sun runes for instance. I think they appropriate Tolkien (who despised the Nazis and their corruption of "Germanic" ideals and Norse mythology) because a lot of them are nerds who don't read too deeply into it, like how right-wingers and conservatives enjoy Star Trek while being completely oblivious to its progressive ideology.
- postsantum 7mo ago
  It's not hard to imagine what elf-rights were thinking of humans. Perhaps they even had a slur or two
  - krapp 7mo ago
    Definitely for the dark elves.
- Arubis 7mo ago
  Venkat Rao noticed this and turned it into a rather excellent essay: https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/discworld-rules https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/discworld-rules > The Lord of the Rings is a great story, but I have to say, I’ve never understood the strange hold it seems to have on the imagination of a particular breed of technologists. > As a story it’s great. It is pure fantasy of course (in the Chiang’s Law sense of being about special people rather than strange rules), full of Chosen Ones doing Great Man (or Great Hobbit) things. As an extended allegory for society and technology it absolutely sucks and is also ludicrously wrong-headed. Humorless Chosen people presiding grimly over a world in terminal decline, fighting Dark Lords, playing out decline-and-fall scripts to which there is no alternative, no Plan B.
  - EdwardDiego 7mo ago
    Thank you for the link, that was a great essay and now I need to reread the Discworld novels.
- throw-the-towel 7mo ago
  Ah, the nerds, always itching to build the Torment Nexus from the classic novel Don't Build the Torment Nexus.
johanneskanybal 7mo ago
It's where all of western history comes from so it's not very strange to be popular overall. It's not like us mythology is a thing.
- xhevahir 7mo ago
  All of Western history comes from the Nordic countries? News to me.
  - gucci_breakfast 7mo ago
    this commenter seems to have forgotten hellenistic greece or a little empire called... Rome? lmao
  - johanneskanybal 6mo ago
    No just saying us history is a 200 year thing europe history is counted in millienias, that's not really debatable. In this post it was noridc mythology but it's was all pretty mixed up together and influenced by each other since they where trading and fighting with each other. But that wasn't really the point.
- krapp 7mo ago
  >It's not like us mythology is a thing. It was before "Americans" came along.
  - bulbar 7mo ago
    Not really, it's just that the Americans and their culture got eradicated for the most part by the invaders/colonialists.
    - gob_blob 7mo ago
      I think that that's exactly what the person you replied to was saying.
    - throwawaypath 6mo ago

ootl: what's the deal with hereditary purists and authoritarians appropriating nordic symbolism as dogwhistles?

by xeonmc 7mo ago

ootl: what's the deal with hereditary purists and authoritarians appropriating nordic symbolism as dogwhistles?

krapp 7mo ago

The Nazis were obsessed with a fictional occult quasi-mythology of the "Aryan" race that heavily appropriated Norse mythology and symbolism. The SS symbol was a pair of sun runes for instance. I think they appropriate Tolkien (who despised the Nazis and their corruption of "Germanic" ideals and Norse mythology) because a lot of them are nerds who don't read too deeply into it, like how right-wingers and conservatives enjoy Star Trek while being completely oblivious to its progressive ideology.

postsantum 7mo ago
It's not hard to imagine what elf-rights were thinking of humans. Perhaps they even had a slur or two
- krapp 7mo ago
  Definitely for the dark elves.
Arubis 7mo ago
Venkat Rao noticed this and turned it into a rather excellent essay: https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/discworld-rules https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/discworld-rules > The Lord of the Rings is a great story, but I have to say, I’ve never understood the strange hold it seems to have on the imagination of a particular breed of technologists. > As a story it’s great. It is pure fantasy of course (in the Chiang’s Law sense of being about special people rather than strange rules), full of Chosen Ones doing Great Man (or Great Hobbit) things. As an extended allegory for society and technology it absolutely sucks and is also ludicrously wrong-headed. Humorless Chosen people presiding grimly over a world in terminal decline, fighting Dark Lords, playing out decline-and-fall scripts to which there is no alternative, no Plan B.
- EdwardDiego 7mo ago
  Thank you for the link, that was a great essay and now I need to reread the Discworld novels.
throw-the-towel 7mo ago
Ah, the nerds, always itching to build the Torment Nexus from the classic novel Don't Build the Torment Nexus.

johanneskanybal 7mo ago

It's where all of western history comes from so it's not very strange to be popular overall. It's not like us mythology is a thing.

xhevahir 7mo ago
All of Western history comes from the Nordic countries? News to me.
- gucci_breakfast 7mo ago
  this commenter seems to have forgotten hellenistic greece or a little empire called... Rome? lmao
- johanneskanybal 6mo ago
  No just saying us history is a 200 year thing europe history is counted in millienias, that's not really debatable. In this post it was noridc mythology but it's was all pretty mixed up together and influenced by each other since they where trading and fighting with each other. But that wasn't really the point.
krapp 7mo ago
>It's not like us mythology is a thing. It was before "Americans" came along.
- bulbar 7mo ago
  Not really, it's just that the Americans and their culture got eradicated for the most part by the invaders/colonialists.
  - gob_blob 7mo ago
    I think that that's exactly what the person you replied to was saying.
  - throwawaypath 6mo ago